Pages

Thursday, February 4, 2016

In Bad Faith

(Systematic Starvation by Anis Mansour): Despite all reports about the UN being allowed to the besieged town of Madaya, the siege continues, so does the starvation and the dying. By playing by Assad’s rules, the UN has become duplicitous in the siege, as activists point out. Opposition members attending the Geneva talks claim that UN Envoy Staffan di Mistura offered to pressure the regime into allowing women, children and the elderly to leave the town, a move, they note, that ends up advancing the regime’s policy of ethnic cleansing.

DDGD February 4, 2016

For speaking opportunities,
interviews, op-eds, book-signings, art exhibitions and ways to support my work
as a blogger, author, a budding digital artist, and a pro-democracy activist, please
reach out to me through this contact form.

Today’s
Post is brought to you by…The
In Bad Faith Group: The best negotiators your money can buy. Whether you
are negotiating a divorce settlement or end to an armed conflict, the IBF Group
will make sure that you get the best possible settlement, on its own terms.

The Delirica

The
Geneva Talks and American Realism: Why did I call on the opposition not
to boycott the talks in Geneva, even though I hardly believe that they are
fair? Because the politics of boycott leave the stage empty for adventurous
types, and deprives the opposition of much needed international exposure and
media opportunities to air their grievances. Assad, Putin, the Mullahs and
their sectarian Shia militias, the Islamic State, Al-Nusra Front and other
Sunni extremist groups, all will keep on killing people and committing
atrocities whether the opposition take parts in the talks or not.

But one has to keep on reminding here
that, as has been the case since the beginning of the conflict, the bulk of the
killing is being carried out by the regime and its supporters. In the run-up to
the talks, the Russians and Hezbollah fighters managed to help the regime retake
a key city in the south, while a new
assault that has just unfolded in the north helped the regime cut off
rebels supply routes, isolating the city of Aleppo.

So, it’s not the talks themselves
that are legitimating Assad and the politics of ethnic mass murder: it’s the
do-nothing attitude by American and Western realists, coupled with the
do-everything attitude by their Iranian and Russian counterparts.

The suspension
of talks after only two days comes as a natural manifestation of the impact
of this realism. Indeed, it’s the realists who’ve been squandering
opportunities when it comes to Syria. The reality, everything that the
administration has ever done in relation to the Syrian conflict was done in
bad faith. The interests of the Syrian people were never the issue, and
merited little or no consideration. Syrian lives certainly did not matter, as
priority was given to appeasing Mullahs, autocrats and mass murderers. In
material terms, this was the cheaper alternative, at least on the short run.
But, its real costs will be borne by generations to come, and not only in
Syria.

The continued
assault by Syrian regime forces -- enabled by Russian airstrikes -- against
opposition-held areas, as well as regime and allied militias’ continued
besiegement of hundreds of thousands of civilians, have clearly signaled the
intention to seek a military solution rather than enable a political one.

But, after all is said and done,
President Obama has achieved his goal: the United States is like any other
global or regional power now. Its purported values have no place in the realm
of policymaking, and while the President might delude himself into thinking
that this only applies to foreign policy, once embraced, amorality recognizes
no borders, and no nation. It’s no wonder that American domestic politics are
becoming so polarized and rancorous. This U-Turn
has undertones and implications far beyond the Middle East and foreign policy.

Refugenics
– The Safer Alternative:EU
officials find that most of the ‘refugees’ are not refugees. What a mess. Are
economic migrants less worthy of being received? Is inability to find suitable
employment and hope for a decent life in your country of origin any less
legitimate as a push factor than conflict? Considering that most protest
movements and calls for reform in the developing countries world usually meet
with violent repression, even when these movements and calls are nonviolent,
and considering how the world turned its back on Syria’s nonviolent protest
movement, then, on its moderate rebels, is it really surprising that so many
millions of young people seem to have drawn the “troubling” conclusion that
migration to a better world is the better answer, and that for all the risks
involved in the journey it remains the safer alternative than revolution?

Dealing with influx of refugees
and economic migrants from Syria and around the world seems to be the logical
price we have to pay for mishandling Syria. This is the price of
nonintervention when the facts were clear and the good and bad guys easily
distinguishable. This is the price of modern Western “realism” that turns its
back on humanitarian intervention. This is the price for conflating
humanitarian intervention with imperialism. This is the price of drawing wrong
conclusions from the Iraq War, and lending credence to the propaganda machines
of authoritarian, corrupt and murderous regimes. This is the price of dithering
in the face of sociopathy and criminality.

The world has grown too small for
us to keep ignoring each other’s suffering and basic needs, too small for
selfishness, too small for narrow-minded politics, too small for tribalism and
atavism, too small for hand-wringing and hand-washing, too small for Shirk
& Shift routines (shirk the responsibility while shifting the blame) in
which so many of our politicians are still too readily willing to engage.
Developed powerful countries have a moral and political responsibility to
manage to push factors that keep sending people our way. And that step does
call for a measure of interventionism, no matter how hard and costly such a
step is. The reality is, the costs of measured interventions in partnership with
regional actors is on the long run, remain far lower than dealing with the
populist backlash with its fascist and racist undertones. We have to find
better ways for managing the current trickle than racism fascism, and
fear-mongering.

This calls for an honest global
and open conversation on far ranging issues including development, effective
governance, peacemaking, human rights and environmental changes. Politicians
need to face the truth and need to tell their people the truth about the world
we are living in today and the future we are moving towards. The crisis of
refugees and migrants is but a symptom of deeper structural problems and a
deeper structural transformation that we are bound to go through. Mass
dislocation and state collapse as a result of environment factors, such as
drought and water scarcity, and conflicts is something that is going to be with
us for decades, unless we do something about it. The Paris Agreement on Climate
Change as set a date, 2050, for moving beyond fossil fuel dependence, and while
this is great news for the planet, there are a variety of states and regions
around the world whose economies might not be able to handle the transition and
seem destined to collapse, unless we do something about it.

Where is the conversation on
that?

What we are witnessing today in
terms of refugees and migrants inflows is but a trickle, and the floodgates
could snap open at any moment, and we cannot blame the people involved simply
for wanting to search for a better life. This search is who we are. We cannot
stop it, we cannot criminalize it. So, we’d better learn how to manage it more
effectively, or suffer the upcoming chaos.

Syria
donors meet in London in bid to stem refugee crisis “The donor
conference, the fourth of its kind, hopes to meet the United Nations' demand
for $7.73 billion to help in Syria plus $1.23 billion assistance for countries
in the region affected by the crisis. British Prime Minister David Cameron will
host more than 70 international leaders at the summit.”

Syria conflict:
Jordanians 'at boiling point' over refugees “King Abdullah of Jordan
says his country is at ‘boiling point’ because of an influx of hundreds of
thousands of Syrian refugees. Ahead of a donor conference on Syria, the king
told the BBC that there was enormous pressure on Jordan's social services,
infrastructure and economy. ‘Sooner or later, I think, the dam is going to
burst,’ he warned.”

What
if this baby were mine? “The baby is the first dead body I see when I get to the beach. He
looks like he is nine or ten months old. He is dressed warmly and was wearing a
hat. An orange pacifier is attached to his clothes. Near him floats a child of
eight or nine years. Next to them a woman. Their mother perhaps.”

Narcos
and Terrorists:Police
smash huge Hizbollah cocaine ring 'raising funds for war in Syria' “DEA says Iran-backed
group forged links to ruthless Colombian cartel set up by Pablo Escobar.”
The Assad regime and Hezbollah have a long history in drug dealing. In fact,
the decision by the late Lebanese PM Rafic Hariri to combat the drug trade in
his country, to penalize banks playing a role in the matter, and to encourage
farmers to grow alternative crops was one of the many disputes that paved the
way for his assassination on the hands of Syrian and Hezbollah operatives. More importantly, this development goes to
highlight an oft-recurring theme in this blog: the coming together of
authoritarian regimes, terrorist networks and organized crime syndicates. This
is how a variety of countries and regimes around the world which normally
wouldn’t stand a chance in the face of Western military superiority can,
nonetheless, undermine its security.

It’s not Al-Qaeda or the Islamic
State that we should fear: it’s the countries that support them, and the
organized crime syndicates willing to do work on their behalf. For although,
entities like Al-Qaeda and IS are not mere tools in the hands of others and
have their own agendas as well, their interests and anti-Western tendencies do
coincide with those of many autocratic regimes around the world, including Iran
and Russia and the Assad regime. This is why giving Assad a pass on what he has
done and continues to do in Syria makes no sense whatever. The willingness of
the Obama Administration and its realist advisers to shrink back from the real
fight in Syria and Iraq, allowing for the empowerment of Iran and Russia, paves
the road for fighting on the home turf, albeit on the longer run.

China,
India and Islam: Some speculate that China will be allying with Iran
in
order to combat Sunni extremism among its Uighur and Hui Muslim
populations. That will be the stupidest policy decision ever. If anything,
China needs to work with Sunni moderates in order to combat its Sunni
extremists, reaching across the sectarian divide to Iran, a Shia power, will
play into the hands of Sunni extremists radicalizing sentiments and
facilitating recruitment. As such, Saudi needs to play up its outreach to Sunni
powers across the world, especially Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan and
Indonesia. It’s India
that is caught in a bind on this matter, with Shia Muslims making up more
than one third of its significant Muslim population of 175 million. Both
countries seem to be aware of their problematic situation and are treading
rather carefully.

“Look at today – he gave a speech
at a mosque. Oh, you know, basically implying that America is discriminating
against Muslims. Of course there’s going to be discrimination in America of
every kind. But the bigger issue is radical Islam. And by the way, radical
Islam poses a threat to Muslims themselves. But again, it’s this constant
pitting people against each other -- that I can’t stand that. It’s hurting our
country badly.” –Republican
presidential candidate Marco Rubio on the same issue.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Go ahead, patronize me!

IGD: We finally hit a perfect 10. We now offically live in the Age of Total Delirirum

The IGD or the Index of Global Delirium reflects the state of delirium in the world at a particular moment in time using a 1 to 10 measure, with 10 denoting the highest level of delirium. Levels of delirium change on the basis of various current developments such as instability, wars, terrorist activities, elections, sports events, financial meltdowns, leaks of sensitive information, etc. Note:levels of violence and delirium do not always coincide. IGD levels may rise even when violence levels seem to take a downturn.

Dystopia Today: The Home Front

Dystopia Today: The Global Stage

I Am Syria

Educators will find theI Am Syria websiteto be quite useful when it comes to finding audio-visual materials explaining the Syrian Crisis in general and the plight of the Syrian Refugees in particular. The site is maintained by a small team of volunteer educators and receives tens of thousands of visits per months.I am honored to be involved in this effort.

Recent Entries into The Holy Deliricon

Recent Entries into The Holy Delirindex

Recent Observations by Delirian Mundi

Recent Scenes from Theatrum Deliria

Recent Episodes from The Cauldron

Syria: A Fire Within

As anti-Assad demonstrations erupt across Syria, Ammar Abdulhamid, an exiled pioneer of the pro-democracy movement must convince US leaders that they have allies on the ground. Or else those allies, and the entire pro-democracy movement, may forever perish.